Just because I'm brainstorming here, I'm not going to create a separate FR yet, but...
Working off of another idea I think from the new combat package (I skimmed it, so it's probably just a couple random words I remember), what about making each region type have some sort of specialty, unlocking more as more knights take residence? It should be something necessary for typical well-functioning realms, but not something that cripples realms without it. The benefits will accumulate rather than being exclusive per level.
So, for example ("resident" is either a lord or knight):
Region A: Rural, 1 resident - Scouts, 2 residents - Banners, 3 residents - Marketplace
Region B: Large city, 1 resident - Banners, 2 residents - Healers, 3 residents - Forge, 4 residents - Siege Engines, 5 residents - Efficient Academies
For ease of implementation (it'd be a pretty big change anyway), we'd want to look at making the rewards standard across region types, but we also need to develop some level of balance. As such, I've thrown in a little bit of a mixture of ideas just to get the wheels spinning... The reward concepts I just thought of are as follows, with some labels that overlap at the moment:
- Existing Rewards: Providing normally gold-based purchases (already available to the region type) makes it so there's a failsafe for no increase in player density. You can either get another knight or pay X gold. Realms that want to expand can, but should expect it to be more costly if they want the full compliment of a region's benefits. (This also mirrors realistic increases in cost for expanding a nation.)
- Bonus Rewards: Similar to Existing Rewards, but these rewards would not normally be available for purchase in that region type. Think of it like a family brings their own servants that make something new at their estate. Maybe they took up a cotton farm and put their personal bannermakers to work?
- Improvements: Increase the capabilities of an existing building. In my example, Efficient Academies would apply to the region's existing Academy, making it more likely (not by a lot, but something noticeable) that you'll increase a skill. The intended advantage here being that it's clearly an incentive, but it doesn't give larger or smaller realms a real edge. Other improvements could be slightly larger granary capacity or make a forge repair slightly more per hour or gold.
Thinking about it a little more, I'd actually probably have the rewards start at 2+ residents. It's all just an idea right now.
